Jahmyr Gibbs and Bijan Robinson are linked by many factors. The two were selected four picks apart in the 2023 NFL Draft, with Robinson going eighth overall and Gibbs going 12th. They were also linked with contract negotiations this offseason, with Robinson blinking first. He received a three-year, $66.75 million contract from Atlanta, and Gibbs received a nearly identical three-year, $67.5 million deal from Detroit.
But one of the more fun connections between the two players is Lions running backs
coach Tashard Choice. Gibbs was the first to cross paths with Choice, spending two years with him at Georgia Tech. When Gibbs left for Alabama, Choice left, too. But he headed to Texas, where he got to coach the final year of Robinson’s college career with the Longhorns.
Since knowing both players, Choice has calculatedly pitted them against each other, in a fun, competitive way. After coaching Gibbs at Georgia Tech, he told Robinson, “You’ve got to be better than him.”
That pushing of the buttons has continued upon Gibbs’ and Choice’s arrival in Detroit. Just last week, after Robinson put up a showcase on Thursday night against the Packers—rushing for 194 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries—Choice texted the Falcons running back to thank him.
“You put on a show tonight. You gave my boy something to aim at,” Choice recalls saying to him. Then he turned his attention back to Gibbs.
“So I’m telling Jah, ‘Hey, man, they [saying] he’s better than you. You’ve got to go do something,” Choice said.
Gibbs responded with a big day of his own, earning 164 scrimmage yards and finding the end zone three times against the Jets.
Choice says he leans into the friendly competition, because it can be hard to motivate players who are already at the top of their game.
“You’ve got to nag a man sometimes, because when you’re a football player and you have a talent, you have a chance with an organization [that] gives you what you deserve, guys get rewarded, the biggest thing for me now is to find little things to push him,” Choice said.
Gibbs admits he has fun watching Robinson play and is happy for his success. But he wants to be the best too, and Robinson helps push him.
“We always want to compete and we always want to be the best,” Gibbs said. “So I mean I think that just speaks for itself.”
Gibbs says that still with a sense of modesty. He’s able to appreciate other players’ games, and not feel threatened by it. But while Gibbs is mostly soft-spoken, Choice is more than happy to act as his megaphone.
“He wants to be the best. He’ll never say that, but his actions going to tell you that,” Choice said. “It’s going to show so he don’t have to speak at all. I think that’s one of the things I’m fond of, because I was the total opposite. I probably should be quiet more, but, for me, that’s why I do the talking.”
While Choice is his biggest fan publicly, he admits he’s also one of Gibbs’ biggest critics behind the scenes. He can’t let Gibbs get complacent, and so he continues to badger him on the biggest areas of improvement.
“Trying to get him motivated, trying to find something to poke at, because when everybody tells him he’s good, I tell him he’s the sorriest player,” Choice said. “Like he has a big game, and I’m on his head about every single little thing that he didn’t do. That’s what I have to be for him, and I’ve always been that way, and I think that’s why he respects me, because I ultimately just want to see him do better.”
One of those areas is pass protection. Against the Jets, backup running back Sione Vaki stepped up in a big way, taking some of the load off of Gibbs. And while Choice admits it’s important to take some of those hits and blows off of Gibbs’ shoulders, they can’t afford Gibbs to be a liability in pass protection, either.
“It’s one thing to take some loads off people, that’s what you want to do sometimes. You want to take blows, and having Vaki out there sometimes to take blows, we’ll do that,” Choice said. “But Jah has to block. At the end of the day, from me to him, that’s the biggest thing. That’s the growth.”
